Argues that current views of the teacher and approaches to teaching impede the confirmation event and may contribute to the flight of young people post-confirmation. Considers a pedagogy discerned through a reading of the Book of Proverbs that promises to honor the agency of both teacher and learner and serve the goal of confirmation. (CMK)

Focuses on the use of assessment rubrics with musical composition. Provides guidelines for musical composition assignments and describes the construction and use of rubrics. Includes four example assessment rubrics. (CMK)

Describes a four week artist-in-residence program called "Reflecticons: Trees of a City." Using handmade paper, the children of Kaukauna (Wisconsin) explored the heritage, development, and growth of their community from the 1700s to the present. (CMK)

Discusses the benefits of commissioning a work for a choral group. Provides guidelines for music educators who commission a piece: (1) know your own needs; (2) find a composer who interests you; (3) help the composer select appropriate lyrics; (4) set a tentative schedule; (5) consider the costs. (CMK)

Considers the use of observation in the classroom as a means of student assessment. Focuses on developing an observation instrument, the scoring criteria, and using progress-based rankings rather than static rankings. Provides an example teacher observation form. (CMK)

Investigates the relationship between technology and the decision-making process in school-based management (SBM) schools. Reports a number of statistically significant findings pertaining to the range and use of technology and active employee involvement in major school decisions in SBM schools. Discusses implications for school governance and…

Proposes six "commonplaces" characteristic of all forms of professional education, and critically examines Dewey's views of teacher education expressed in his essay "The Relation of Theory to Practice in Education" through those commonplaces. Offers proposals for conceptualizing the education of teachers in general and the…

Responds to a reaction (issue 50 number 1 p5) to the author's original paper, "Toward a Post-Modern Agenda in Instructional Technology" (2000). Contributes to the dialogue about culture and learning in instructional technology (IT). Reviews opportunities. Suggests philosophical implications for IT, derived from the author's own research on…

Identifies six phases of developmental education in American history, each of which naturally interconnects with social history. States that each succeeding phase includes more student subpopulations, beginning in the mid-1600s with privileged white males, to the present, more diverse era. Explores first three phases--which focused on tutoring and…

Focuses on the benefits and effectiveness of using a dual-gender team-teaching approach in a human sexuality course focused on issues related to creating a comfortable learning environment. Addresses the student perceptions of the course. Finds that the approach is advantageous to both students and instructors. (CMK)

To better understand the eligibility criteria Michigan districts use to identify students with special learning disabilities, written documents from the Regional Educational Service Agencies were analyzed. The majority of districts had written criteria, and all of the districts with criteria included a severe discrepancy formula. Discrepancy…

This article considers the different ways that the United Kingdom's government, teachers, and academics think about inclusion. A working definition of inclusion is presented based on a system of values and indicators of inclusion for students with deafness, along with examples of practice. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Focuses on defining constructivism, which includes learning as an active process of knowledge construction and instruction as a process of supporting that construction. Discusses 10 constructivist assumptions about learning. Describes 11 actions that define the constructivist teacher. (AEF)

Lists upcoming conferences (taking place during the months of March through July 2002): Florida Educational Technology Conference; Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference Teaching, Learning, and Technology; Georgia Educational Technology Conference; e-Learning Conference and Expo; International Conference on Software Engineering; National…

Argues against a definition of poststructural theory as generating inaction and as antithetical to concepts such as "agency" and "choice." Suggests that poststructuralist theory may have implications for practice by examining the practices in regular schools and a school for "behaviorally disturbed" children. (CMK)